Employee Engagement – Not Just HR’s Job

09:30 AM, 03 15, 2017

Employee Engagement – Not Just HR’s Job

As a busy HR professional, you have a wide range of responsibilities and often wear many hats – and perhaps employee engagement has been popped on your radar. Often described as a ‘project’ or a ‘piece of work’ many businesses are surprised to find that employee engagement is an ongoing job.

In fact, employee reward and engagement was described in 1957 by Behrend as an ‘effort bargain’ between the parties to the employment relationship, and was also noted as a relationship that needed to be continuously renewed on both sides.

As a HR professional, your passion is not doubt tied up with employee satisfaction, but that doesn’t mean you can spot all the pain points in your business. Here are the top areas where you could suggest other business members ‘pick up the mantel’ when it comes to staff satisfaction.

So, if an employee happiness and engagement ‘project’ has landed on your shoulders, should you push it back into the business as a whole – and who can help you?

Managers and Supervisors

You can’t spot the superstars in the business if you aren’t given information on who they are. Speak to managers and supervisors in your business to see how they feel about reward and recognition. A daily, weekly, or monthly temperature check between senior and middle management members can highlight who deserves recognition and how as a business you go about recognising good behaviour – and what that behaviour is.

The Office Manager

Many psychologists have looked at the basics of human need, Maslow being the most often cited with his pyramid, which shows that needs go from the most basic to ensure survival to psychological needs. However, dated the study – it’s true. Employees need the ‘basics’ covered. Most people like to work in smart offices. They want to be able to park safely close by. They are happier when they have easy access to food, water and are at a comfortable temperature. Seek someone in your business who has the authority to make changes in your premises that can have a positive effect.

Employees

Psychologist Wright (2005) argued that extending the features of employee reward beyond those specified in the ‘economic contract’ may help to secure employees’ discretionary effort – in other words, by giving more to employees than they expect, the higher the potential return for the business.

Ask your employees what they would like back from the company, and if possible, over deliver on what is suggested.

How can you reward?

Once you have some ideas of who to reward and your office is ship shape, how do you reward employees? The first thing to look at is how people reward themselves. The latest research has shown that after spending on bills and other necessary commitments, the most common ways to spend ‘leftover money’ are as follows:

Savings

Dining out

Going out

Books/DVD/CDs

Small extras for family

Short breaks /holiday

Long holidays (3+days)

Sweets / chocolate

Food/drink special occasion

Days out (leisure park)

Jewellery clothing, personal items

All of these things can be gifted using Gift cards and eCodes!
As a global leader in gift card management, we work with many HR professionals who want to implement gift cards into their existing benefit system, or who want to get in the habit of giving gift cards for rewards. Cash, although good for short term happiness simply doesn’t have the longevity when compared to gift cards and eCodes that last longer, both in the wallet/ purse and in memory. If you work in HR – why not action some of the ideas you’ve seen today?

To summarise:

-Ask employees what they want

- Ask managers to identify how they reward, and who needs rewards

- Speak to an office manager about improving the basics of your working environment.

If you’re interested in giving Gift Cards or eCodes – either ongoing or as a one-off reward for long service, a birthday or anniversary – order from us today. We can dispatch eCodes immediately and we work with over 500 brands globally! We may also be able to offer very competitive bulk order discounts.